I guess everybody now are facing problems related to hardware availability.
12-18 months ago we were struggling with the Disc Lite ac - lead times up to 6 months, then things appeared to improve a tad, but now we have the worst situation I’ve seen throughout my 15 years as a Mikrotik user. Especially on switches estimated stock dates are months ahead, some of them as far as august…
Ultimately, this might cause projects to be cancelled or postponed for half a year due to lack of hardware.
Of course I can be accused of not maintaining a big enough stock myself, but how can you estimate the number of each product you should keep on the shelves, given this volatile situation?
OTOH, if everybody ordered twice as much as needed, that would also vacuum clean warehouses all over Europe…which it probably already did?
I’m sure that the revenue for Mikrotik is also suffering from this, as their customers’ are.
Apologize if I missed it, but so far I have not seen any official statement from Mikrotik about the situation.
If I understand it right this is all about Chinese microchip shortage, but what are the prospects? China’s vague position vs Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine does not make things brighter either.
For instance, some car manufacturers are now moving production from the far east to europe to reduce the risk.
-Is this situation something that we will have to live with permanently in the future?
-Alternatively, when does MT expect the situation to be back to normal?
-Is MT planning to move parts of the production to Europe to reduce dependency on China?
I would highly appreciate if Mikrotik officials could comment on this!
Exactly. Market situation is critical. Where is outdoor 4G/LTE devices? I live next door to one of the Mikrotik factories and I’m informed that they are making new SXT and sending them out. Where are they? You are making devices today. We need to buy these devices today.
Can’t buy LHGGLTE6 anywhere in South Africa at the moment, not to mention other lack of variety/supply at major suppliers such as scoop. Have to select hardware based on what’s in stock. better supply chain management will be integral to achieving more efficient and higher sales output volumes
For context, some of the clients we work for that use Cisco and Juniper have an average of more than 1-year lead time for most equipment and some are even getting close to a 2-year lead time.
So the fact that we can still buy MikroTik inventory at all is pretty amazing compared to the rest of the networking industry.
In fact we can’t…or maybe barely… and either way that is a poor comfort, for mee at least.
Try to get hold of a Mikrotik PoE switch these days…
The problem that I try to address is that this just happens without notice and nobody knows, all we hear is rumors that it is about chips from China…
We can cope with a lot of situations if we get information and prospects of improvement, so what is this all about?
Factory workers at home with Covid? Factories burned down? Bankrupcy in the industry? Silicon shortage? Transport challenges? Politics?
Is this an evidence of the western hemisphere’s all too large dependency on China?
And what is done to improve the situation, except for waiting?
What we don’t want is having to move away from Mikrotik as preferred brand (if there are other brands to move to…) , and I don’t think Mikrotik wants that either.
I don’t think so either, but I also think that there is very little MT can do about it. When giants like Cisco and Juniper suffer, little guys like MT are absolutely powerless.
I advise you to study the matter a bit better, e.g. read some general articles about it on the tech news sites etc.
It is not a problem specific to MikroTik, and most manufacturers provide no detail information, probably that would be strategically bad for them.
Sure it is a consequence of neoliberal globalization, but that cannot be blamed on MikroTik. And those that it can be blamed on suddenly are not home or don’t remember.
Good luck in finding another preferred brand. It is the same for everyone.
For sure, misunderstanding other people’s positions and intentions is easy…
Just to clarify:
-Yes I have read quite a bit about it already
-No, I don’t blame Mikrotik for the problem
-No, I dont think this is specific to Mikrotik, I am struggling with availability of a lot of brands of computers, peripherials, printers, monitors…
-No, believe me or not, I don’t think Mikrotik has the power to control the Chinese semiconductor industry
-No, I have no wish, nor have I made any descision, to move to other brands.
All I am asking is for Mikrotik to address their customers with a statement and shed some light on the situation.
How can that possibly be interpreted as blaming them, accusing them for not changing the whole industry, ditching them as a supplyer, or merely be taken as a sign of sheer ignorance?
If Mikrotik was “just another manufacturer of bottom of the barrel gear” I would not bother to address this, the reason I do is that they make great stuff and that I care.
Nobody expect Cisco and HP to step down and communicate with their customers, they are far too big.
Mikrotik is different, they are human beings that we use to shake hands with at the MUMs, and whom we can discuss things with.
As you say: the big boys don’t, why would the smaller ones do it ? For what purpose ? To put the spotlights on themselves and take the heat ?
Bad marketing… I completely understand why they do NOT mention anything.
It’s not that they can ship devices with missing parts like some car manufacturers decided to do (yes, I’m talking about Tesla, Audi, Ford, …).
You misunderstood me there, I think.
I also think transparency is a good thing but I understand why they decide not to communicate. That’s something else.
It’s like chosing between cholera and the plague.
They always loose whatever they do. So they apparently selected the lesser evil here. And I understand that (which does not mean I have to agree with that choice).
It’s their business. So it’s their decision.
China has everyone [mfgs & vendors] by the short hairs … geopolitics is causing a very significant realignment so until that is sorted out China will use all of its commercial weapons’ to gain the upper hand. Since EVERYONE in this game relied on the very cheap labour that China offered and delivered the consequences is very obvious. The Supply chain is in a mess and will take time to sort out.
Scary prospects indeed…
In the long run, the question is whether the western hemisphere can continue to rely that heavily on China if they are continuing along their current path.
So far, from China’s side we haven’t seen anything but vague statements regarding butcher Putins genocide in Ucraine, and indeed they have quite a bit to answer for in terms of democratic rights, human rights, HSE and so on…
I’ve been following three specific products, CRS328-24P-4S+RM,CSS610-8G-2S+IN and RB5009UG+S+IN since January. Expected shipping date keep slipping since then, from March all the way to July. I understand there is a shortage, but how can they not have ANY RB5009UG routers to sell between Feb and July? ZERO! I reapeat ZERO TO SELL? CSS610, same story won’t ship until June. It’s a completely valid question to ask since other products are clearly being made, even if in smaller quantities.
I needed to buy a home router, I couldn’t get RB5009UG so I bought MikroTik CCR2004-16G-2S+ instead, since CCR2004 is much more easily available…
The same way Cisco, Juniper, Aruba, Arista, Extreme, etc, etc don’t have any boxes to sell for 1 to 2 years.
It’s not complicated - certain components are in short supply. If they have the components to make a particular model, then they make and ship it. If they don’t have all the components to go on the board, then they wait until those are projected to be in hand. We’ve been dealing with this in IT globally for over a year now, it’s not new.
The fact that MIkroTik is shipping anything that does routing and switching puts them ahead of most every other network vendor on the planet.
There’s also a war on Lativa’s doorstep. MikroTik donated hundreds of thousands of euros worth of equipment to help restore connectivity in Ukraine and surrounding refugee camps. If they got all the 5009s that were in stock until July, i’m 110% ok with that.
Have a bit of empathy while you shout about getting your “home” router. Jus sayin…
Wow, I get called out for a lack of empathy towards victims of war because I am asking why are the shipping dates of network equipment keep slipping. Internet turn of even here…
Thank you for information about MT’s contribution in Ukraine’s struggle against her neighbor from hell, I believe this is new information for most of us, and of course I don’t protest to this.
In fact this move could be used to the positive for Mikrotik if the world got to know!
That said, this thread is about the overall supply situation of Mikrotik hardware specifically, and that situation does not improve by considerations regarding other brands being even more delayed. Businesses (like mine) won’t rest assured with lead times of 6 months only because Cisco has 12 months…
Also no point in ridiculing the previous poster for his home use and compare that to hitherto unknown information about Mikrotik in Ukraine…everybody is frustrated from his/her perspective due to lack of availability.
